M. A LABOUR OF LOVE THE BIOGRAPHY OF DR SHISHUPAL RAMBHAROS Kogi Singh Copyright©2000 Kogi Singh Distributors in South Africa: Aryan Benevolent Home P.O. Box 56199 Chatsworth 4030 For my grandchildren Thiren Phone: (03l) 4049523 Fax: (031) 4042126 and Radeshni Naidoo and Shikara and Divesh Singh All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by ClI1\' means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,. recording or otherwise without permission in writing from the author: First Edition 2000 ISBN 0-620-25803-9 Printed by ATLAS PRINTERS 83 Pine Street Durban. South Africa Tel: (03l) 3327628 Fax (031) 3371897 Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection: Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action - Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. This is my prayer to thee, my lord - strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my lowes before insolent might. Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love. Shishupal Rambharos, B. Comm Rabindranath Tagore University of Natal, 1958 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE I thank all those, named and unnamed, who have contributed to the writing of this book. Their ready agreement to be interviewed, to Every now and again an institution is touched by a personal grace. tolerate long telephone discussions and to write down a memory of the So powerful is the relation between the person and the institution that past, has made my task immeasurably lighter. the one merges into the other. The person breathes his life into the institution and endears it to his society in a way that an impersonal Special thanks go to: institution never can. The institution will live on beyond the life of the person and the person will live on in the institution beyond his life. Professor Fatima Meer; whose idea it was many years ago that this Such is the symbiotic relation Kogi Singh paints between Bhai biography should be written and whose support, guidance and Rambharos and the Aryan Benevolent Home. encouragement are very much appreciated; The meeting between the two could not but have been traumatic, especially for the seven year old Rambharos who had just lost his father Numsie Gounden, whose insistence that I write it finally stirred me and was expected, as the only well member of the family, to care for his into action; invalid mother and mentally retarded brother. The Home offered the destitute family a refuge, albeit in a bleak overcrowded room in a wood my long-suffering family - my husband, children and grandchildren for and iron cottage where the inmates literally lived on the floor, sleeping, their incredible patience, understanding and tolerance; eating and doing whatever chores came their way there. But as mean as were the conditions at the Home, they rescued the family from the Habi, Sandhiya and Devi, (my husband. daughter and sister, for proof abject poverty in which the family had floundered. reading so diligently; There is the heart-rending image of the six-year old Shishupal struggling to transport his mortally ill father in a wheelbarrow for the officials, staff and residents of the Aryan Benevolent Home for medical attention; there is the grace of the tender hearted boy whose their kind reception of me at all times; sweet nature blocked out the pain and hunger and responded to the kindness of his benefactors. He never complained though he was the officials of the Aiya Yuvuk Sabha for their support. dumped into an Old Age Home and forced into the inaction of the infirm and invalid. It was hardly the environment to nurture the Lastly, thank you Bhai Rambharos, for accommodating my persistent inquisitive mind of the child Rambharos, bubbling with enthusiasm to search for information and for making yourself available whenever understand and create. Yet he overcame the necessary. limitations of that environment and expanded beyond it. Far from harbouring resentment, he converted the tedious demands of his elderly companions into service as prescribed by the Vedas and conquered his deprivations by converting them into fulfilments. Barricaded behind the INTRODUCTION gates of the Home and bereft of all recreational activities, he created his own, measuring the flow of traffic on Bellair Road by day and devising a game of distinguishing the buses by their sound by night. Excluded from normal society, he inveigled his way into it by running errands for his teacher and immersing himself into the activities of the Arva Samaj and its affiliates. At seventeen, he was a member of the Arya Yuvuk Sabha, at 21 he It has taken many months to put together this book, largely because was its secretary, and while still in his thirties, he became chairperson of Bhai Rambharos has had a long, varied and rich life that reflects so the Home itself. The adopted became the adoptee. And to what many different interests. It has been an immense task that has raised purpose? To transform and modernise, so that its residents would live in many difficult questions. How does one, for example, convey his life comfort and hope so that it would become a true refuge and cease to be without lapsing into hyperbole? How does one separate the man from a disposal ground for the dispossessed and the discarded. his work, when the two, combined, make him into what he is? How Simultaneous with his service to the Home was the flourishing of does one remain objective when enveloped by his warmth and Bhai Rambharos' academic career. He qualified as a teacher, graduated gentleness? and was recently conferred with an honorary doctorate by the It has not been easy. I have struggled with what to include and what University of Natal. As distinguished as was his teaching career, the to omit, for to do justice to his achievements would require volumes. I Home always came first and he took early retirement when called to have merely touched upon them. It is impossible to mention all those head the fund-raising campaign to expand and develop the Institution. who have worked closely with him, locally, nationally and It is a remarkable story that Kogi Singh unfolds, of an orphan, internationally, for that would read as an impressive list of those whose brought up in an orphanage, a veritable Oliver Twist, only he does not lives have been marked by 'caring, serving and sharing' (a motto of the fall into the hands of a Fagan; he is not rescued by a benefactor - he rescues himself; he lifts himself out, and up from a situation tailor-made Aryan Benevolent Home). for bitterness and revenge, and converts it into one of opportunity and I have had to remind myself again and again that this is his hope. He achieves this miracle by loving the Institution and through biography, as it would be very easy indeed to become lost in the love, conquering his subconscious dread of it as a child and in labyrinthine passages that lead to his social, cultural, religious and adulthood, converting it, in brick and mortar and human values into one educational achievements, and shift attention to the organisations he of the finest welfare institutions in the country. serves, rather than to his contributions to their development. This is particularly so with the Aryan Benevolent Home, which has become Fatima Meer - April 2000 synonymous with his name. I have explored the earlier days of his life in detail, in the attempt to assess the impact of those who guided him and thereby helped to shape his vision. It is, in my belief, the key to understanding who and what he is. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Part One: The Early Years Chapter One: From India to South Africa ...................................... 1 Chapter Two: The World of a Child ................................................ 5 Chapter Three: At the Home and the School ................................... 21 Chapter Four: At Work and at Play ............................................... 51 Part Two: Responsibility and Leadership Chapter Five: Secretary of the Sabha ............................................ 71 Chapter Six: The Schoolteacher ................................................... 93 Chapter Seven: Marriage ................................................................. III Chapter Eight: An Inspired Leader ............................................... 141 Part Three: A Life Fulfilled Chapter Nine: The Lure of the Stage ............................................ 163 Chapter Ten: A Transfer of Skills ............................................... 173 Chapter Eleven: A Cultural Ambassador ......................................... 183 Chapter Twelve: A Place in the Sun ................................................. 195 Conclusion ..................... ............................................................................ 212 ADDENDA A: Record of Service to the Community ............................................................ 213 B: Awards/Honours/Citations ............................................................................